Reborn as a Demonic Tree

Chapter 633: Necroflora Empire (Start of Book 11)

[Congratulations, Ashlock. You have ascended to the Monarch Realm]

The dreamscape collapsed, and the ashen-grey sky the heavens had tortured him under for the last half a year was replaced with a massive, swirling hole wider than the World Tree's canopy, seemingly leading to the next Layer of Creation.

"I can't believe it," Ashlock muttered. "The Era of Ascension... I did it without having to fight the World Tree to the death, as Senior Lee assumed was the only path forward. If not for Stella, I could only imagine what would have happened—"

As if to announce his ascension to the world, the fallout of his Eye of Horus collapsing sent a wave of spiritual pressure out of his Soul Cosmos, down Red Vine Peak and across the World Tree's canopy.

Sylva Yggdrasil's golden leaves rustled as though caught in a sudden breeze from the immense spiritual pressure, and the entire realm felt her stir awake from her half-year-long slumber.

"Sylva, I'm back... oh."

If he was slow to wake in the mornings, Sylva was glacial in comparison. He could feel through their fused roots as her biology slowly shifted from slumber to alertness. But it would be a while until she became conscious enough to talk.

Ashlock returned his focus to Red Vine Peak and immediately noticed his guardian awaiting him.

"Master," Larry said gruffly in the ancient runic language. "You have succeeded in your ascension. Allow me to be the first to congratulate you on this achievement."

Larry lurked beneath his canopy as a massive cloud of silver ash in the vague shape of a spider. He stared up at Ashlock with eight orbs of blazing divine power that served as his eyes. A halo of ash as big as Stella's house orbited his head as the Herald of the Divine Ash loomed over Red Vine Peak, casting it in shadow.

Before saying anything, Ashlock noticed something new. He used to feel slightly suppressed by the spiritual pressure that Larry radiated, but now he found he was the one whose spiritual pressure dominated the surroundings.

"I appreciate that, Larry. How have things been while I was ascending?" Ashlock asked and glanced around. He saw Bob glowing with divine energy at the edge of the clearing, but otherwise the clearing was empty. "Where's Stella?"

"The Princess is currently training alone in the Eternal Realm to try and reach the Sovereign of Realities Realm, as for how things have been—"

"I can be the one to give you the report on that," Diana said as she emerged from a portal that had likely been made by the spatial Bastion that her residence sat on. Trailing a respectful distance behind her were two Monarchs, Aurelian Vasthorne and Evaline Brynhold, who had once been Monarchs of the Celestial Empire but were now enslaved by her. All three were dressed in thicker robes than he remembered, since six months had passed and it was now winter.

"Diana! It's so good to see you again," Ashlock said, unable to hold back his joy at seeing the Archdemon's face. While she wasn't his adopted daughter like Stella was, Diana was a special person to both him and Stella. She was also the overseer of the Ashfallen Empire, and if she was alive and not scowling, things couldn't have gone too badly in his absence.

Diana grinned, showing her fangs. "It's good to see you again too, Ashlock. From your jovial tone, I assume you're relieved that the ascension is over?"

"You have no idea... It was torture for months," Ashlock lamented. "But it's over now, and I'm aware we don't have much time to sit and chat with that issue looming above us." He glanced at the massive rift in the sky. "But please, tell me what happened over the last few months so I'm caught up."

Diana held out her hand, and the ice-cold beauty Evaline rushed to hand her a notebook. "A lot happened, but only some of it is immediately relevant for you. Elaine, Douglas, Magnus, Morrigan, and Elysia have returned from the Eternal Realm, and with the help of Elaine, Stella, and myself, we managed to defeat the Hollowed One."

"The Hollowed One is dead?"

Diana nodded. "He caused a famine and a big issue a few months ago, but Stella managed to track him down, and then Elaine fed him a void-coated illusion of Stella, allowing us to defeat him. Nothing remained behind, with his body disintegrating into dust, beside a black gemstone that is linked to an infinite-sized pocket dimension."

"That sounds useful. I assume Stella has it?"

"Indeed. Due to the famine, we ramped up food production beyond what is needed, so Stella is currently using the black gem to hold the excess food in stasis. She is intending to use it as an offering to the cultivators in the Tessellate Citadel, as there were food shortages last time she went."

"That sounds oddly considerate of her, and I assume that means the famine brought about by the Hollowed One has been resolved?" Ashlock asked. While he appreciated Stella's consideration, he wanted to make sure the people of the Ashfallen Empire were fed first before others.

"As far as your concerns go, there are no ongoing famines or revolts with the Ashbound Order working tirelessly throughout the Empire," Diana said and passed the notebook back. "Everyone is busy, but in light of the Era of Ascension and your own ascension concluding, I've called an emergency meeting for all Monarchs, and they should be arriving shortly."

"Perfect, we have a lot to discuss," Ashlock said as he felt some powerful auras approaching Red Vine Peak from below. "Give me a moment before they all arrive—there's something that is demanding my attention."

Diana smiled and bowed. "Take your time, Patriarch."

Ashlock retreated into his Soul Cosmos. There was no doubt that many system messages had piled up over the last six months, especially with his successful ascension, and he needed to review them. Flying past Stella's house and the ocean, he arrived on the untouched side of his Inner World that housed the Divine Flesh Tree and his sacrificial credit forest.

The number of sacrificial credit trees was twice what he had ever seen before.

"Alright, system, how many credits do I have right now?"

Idletree Daily Sign-In System

Day: 3987

Daily Credit: 197

Sacrifice Credit: 23,691

[Sign in?]

"Hold on, does that say over twenty-three thousand credits?! What the fu—"

[System and Status updated...]

[Demonic Demi-Divine Tree (Age: 10)]

[Monarch Realm: 1st Stage]

[Soul Type: Nine Moons (Desolation)]

[Domain: Eye of Horus]

[Notice: Your General-class Ents now meet the threshold for the Monarch Realm. Promotion may be initiated at will and will trigger a tribulation]

[As their Overlord, you may author their Domains. A Domain is a Monarch's will projected onto reality, and you are their creator—]

"Woah, woah, hold on. One thing at a time!" Ashlock snapped, making the system message pause. "I'm still processing having so many credits. I can upgrade so many skills and still have some left over for a Mythical draw. Yet now you're telling me I get to engineer the domains of my Generals? This is all too much. I want to focus on drawing a Mythical grade first."

[Random draws are capped at SSS grade, obtainable at 5,000+ credits. Credits committed beyond this threshold are consumed without increasing the grade of the result. Mythical grade cannot be granted by chance. It is reached only through the direct upgrade of an existing SSS-grade acquisition, or a change to the fundamental nature of the thing itself, such as with Nyxalia]

"...Why didn't you tell me this before, and why do you feel more detailed than before?"

[Because I have been upgraded since you reached the Monarch Realm]

Ashlock sighed. "That doesn't really answer my question, but fine. You claim an SSS-grade draw costs 5,000, and how much did upgrading Skyborne Bastion cost? Over 13,000, right? So it's basically 18,000 in total for a Mythical draw. I have enough for one, but if I do a random draw now, it will consume all my credits and only give me an SSS-grade draw. That means I need to upgrade some skills first before even considering if a random draw is a good idea."

Ashlock pulled up his status screen to investigate his options.

[Demonic Demi-Divine Tree (Age: 10)]

[Monarch Realm: 1st Stage]

[Soul Type: Nine Moons (Desolation)]

[Domain: Eye of Horus]

[Mutations…]

{Crown of the Withered Sovereign [S]}

{Cursed Blood of the Demon Tree [S]}

{Evil Eye [A]}

[Summons…]

{Netherwood Wraith: Nyxalia [Mythical]}

{Harbinger of the Eternal Ash: Larry [SS]}

{Celestial Ink Dragon: Kaida [SS]}

[Soul Weapons…]

{The Sword of New Beginnings [?]}

[Skills…]

{Worldborne Sanctuary [Mythical]}

{Necroflora Overlord [SSS]}

{Divine Cycle of Creation and Ruin [SS]}

{Eternal Realm [SS]}

{Hellroot Abyss [SS]}

{Heaven-Defying Orchard [SS]}

{Progeny Dominion [S]}

{Dimensional Overlap [S]}

{Nocturnal Genesis [S]}

{Ethereal Roots [S]}

{Voidstorm Aegis [S]}

{Abyssal Maw [S]}

{Soul Forest [S]}

{Gaze of the Tree God [S]}

{Mycelium Network [S]}

{Abyssal Whispers [A]}

{Language of the Eldertree [A]}

{Fire Qi Barrier [A]}

{Blooming Root Flower Production [B]}

{Superior Poison Resistance [C]}

Out of curiosity, Ashlock focused on his age, and an auxiliary system message he'd never seen before appeared with more detail.

[Age: 10 years, 11 months]

[Suppressed mental age: 5,309 years, 7 months, 12 days]

"A month until Stella's and my birthdays... and what is this suppressed mental age?"

[To prevent ego death and the erosion of your memories, I suppress the many years you spent comprehending the Laws]

"Understandable." Ashlock didn't like the sound of ego death and the erosion of his memories, nor did he particularly want to remember all that time he spent as a rock or a drop of water. He closed the auxiliary message and focused back on his long list of skills.

He had a lot of credits to spend, which meant he had options.

"Let's think. I'm going to be directly invading the 8th Layer of Creation. For an invasion, I need to be able to spread my roots and offspring to establish control and an army to maintain the land and sects I conquer. While I have many individually strong Monarchs on my side, they are already stretched thin managing the Ashfallen Empire, and I don't want to send them needlessly into battle against possible Sovereign of Realities Realm cultivators."

Ashlock paused to ponder. "Now that I think about it, I don't even know what cultivators of that level are capable of yet. The power gap is likely larger than between the Nascent Soul and Monarch Realm, meaning none of my Monarchs would win if a Sovereign attacked."

The Eternal Realm would give him Sovereigns in time—the most immediate problem was having an army he could use to conquer the 8th Layer of Creation.

"That settled it. The skill I need to upgrade the most is Necroflora Overlord."

He had planned to upgrade it anyway, and now felt like the perfect opportunity, as he had the credits and he hadn't yet promoted his three Generals to the Monarch Realm.

"System, I want to upgrade Necroflora Overlord."

[Directly upgrading {Necroflora Overlord [SSS]} to {Mythical} grade will consume 14,296 credits. Proceed?]

"A little more expensive than my Skyborne Bastion skill cost me. Whatever, I need an immortal army if I'm to continue my conquest without mass loss of life. Do it."

Ashlock felt the pressure in his Soul Cosmos suddenly shift—over half of the sacrificial credit forest beneath him abruptly withered away, and he swore the sky darkened as golden system text carved through the air before him.

[Upgraded {Necroflora Overlord [SSS]} → {Necroflora Empire [Mythical]}]

[{Necroflora Empire [Mythical]}

You no longer command an army. You reign over an immortal nation.

The limit on General-class Ents is removed, and the cost to raise one has been reduced to 500 credits. However, each General is sustained by your Inner World for as long as they stand. Their number is limited only by what their sovereign can bear.

Generals may now appoint officers beneath them, and those officers may raise and command Ents in your stead. The Ents your Generals raise will be morphed by their affinity, differing them from the Ents created by you.

Ents now cultivate. They gather Qi, comprehend the affinities of the dead they were raised from, and advance without your intervention. Also, an Ent raised from a corpse that held a Domain inherits a withered remnant of it, weaker than the original and forever unable to grow.

Furthermore, any of your offspring may tear its roots from the soil and rise as an Ent at your command, or at the command of a General, and return to the earth when the work is done]

Ashlock was stunned. "The removal of the limit on Generals and the reduction in their cost is already a game changer, but my offspring can now uproot themselves and head into battle directly?!"

The ridiculous mental image of a marching army of demonic trees aside, this feature had a practical use, as it meant his offspring could walk through portals and establish themselves deep in enemy lines. Whereas before, he would have to plant them and pump their growth with harmony dao.

"It also says here that my Ents can cultivate now, and even inherit the domains from the corpses they were raised from? If I had this before fighting the Celestial Empire, I'd have an army of domain-wielding immortals right now."

The sects of the 8th Layer of Creation weren't ready for any of this.

Since his time was limited, Ashlock waved away the insane skill description and scanned down the list. He had 9,395 credits remaining—enough to upgrade an SS-grade skill to SSS-grade and have some left over.

"What are my SS-grade options again?"

{Divine Cycle of Creation and Ruin [SS]}

{Eternal Realm [SS]}

{Hellroot Abyss [SS]}

{Heaven-Defying Orchard [SS]}

"I can rule out Heaven-Defying Orchard for now, as growing fruits isn't a priority. Hellroot Abyss is incredibly useful for establishing an outpost, but it already serves its purpose well at SS grade. That leaves my own cultivation technique, or the Eternal Realm."

It was a hard decision. He needed his cultivation technique to gather Qi for himself and his offspring, and also repair his spiritual moons, but upgrading the Eternal Realm would accelerate the growth of his Empire's cultivators.

"Since Stella's currently inside the Eternal Realm and I don't want to make any changes that might interrupt her cultivation, I'll upgrade my cultivation technique." He paused. "I also want to increase the strength of my offspring if they are going to start marching into battle."

"System, I've made my decision. Upgrade Divine Cycle of Creation and Ruin."

The last of his sacrificial forest crumbled to nothing, and golden text began to carve itself through the air.